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Promoting social inclusion sub-group mental health review Feedback on SSA paper JANUARY 2004
The paper produced by the Social Security Agency is very helpful in that it sets out a range of customer service initiatives being undertaken by the Social Security Agency. None of the initiatives, however, are specifically targeted at people with mental health problems or learning disability. Certain activities will involve working with people with mental health problems or learning disability (for example, the incapacity benefit specialist customer care team will work with special schools as part of their general disability work). What is needed is a focussed pro-active strategy for enhancing and developing services to the mentally ill and learning disabled. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agencies Summary of Social Security Statistics in 2003 set out that over one in three people (37,370) receive incapacity benefit as a result of mental or behavioural disorders and one in four people (37,424) cite mental health problems or learning disability as the main disabling condition for receipt of disability living allowance. The Agency has undertaken specific and tailored strategic initiatives in the past to work with particular social groups to improve services (for example, working with ethnic minority communities). I would suggest that the social inclusion sub-group recommend that the Social Security Agency develop a strategy for entrancing customer service and examine service delivery issues for groups covered by the mental health review. Such an initiative would need to work with key voluntary organisations and user led groups to identify the main issues to be tackled. In particular, the strategy could look at:
Beyond customer service development a strategy could identify issues that the Agency could carry forward with its counterparts in Britain. The Social Security Agency has been involved in a UK wide approach to improving claim forms for specific social security benefits. The forms for claiming DLA and incapacity benefit have been improved and significantly oriented towards claimants with physical impairment by asking specific disability related questions. A similar exercise needs to be undertaken for incapacity benefit and DLA for mental health (for example, the claim form for DLA has an open question about mental health with no guidance as to the type of information required for the purpose of a claim). The type of approach outlined in this short paper would enable the Social Security Agency to build on its existing work in a more focussed way with claimants who are learning disabled or have mental health problems. Les Allamby, Law Centre (NI), January 2004 |
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